Nobel Peace Laureate Inspires our Youth

Dear Friends:

We began the month of April finalizing our plans to attend the Southeast PeaceJam Leadership Conference at Florida State University. This is the event that our Youth Leaders look forward to in hopes of gaining new perspectives and ideas from a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate while learning more about the power of one. They treasure the opportunity to meet and work with this person for an entire weekend. This year the  Laureate was Rigoberta Menchu Tum from Guatemala. She won the Peace Prize for her work helping indigenous people of Guatemala. As a Mayan, she shared many insights with the group regarding living the life you love and taking care of our Mother Earth. She was introduced to a group of over 400 students from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida who gathered to share this incredible event. She was so inspiring that I have planned a trip to Guatemala to visit her foundation. Thank you Rody Thompson, the Director of Southeast PeaceJam, for making this event such a success year after year. You are truly AMAZING!

Other than PeaceJam, we had our Youth Leaders from Marathon High School recognized in a full page article in the Citizen newspaper. They went over and beyond to help those in need at their school and in the community throughout the year. We are so proud of them! THANK YOU ALL and to the Co-Prevention Coordinators, Christina and Tina Belotti, for making it all happen! YOU ARE AWESOME!

Fundraising was also successful during April as we were fortunate to have Nicole at Paradise Tennis host a tournament in our honor. THANK YOU NICOLE and BROCK! Pat Croce and John Vagnoni, from the Green Parrot,are our newest supporters of the Farm to School Program in Key West and they have offered to host quarterly Bingo nights for Keys to Be the Change. We had our first one and it was a true success. Thank you both as well as State Attorney Catherine Vogel,Terry Wood , and Duane and Jody Kuhn from Southernmost Coconut Castaways for running the show!  We were so LUCKY TO HAVE YOU HELP US! Our Staycation and Date Night Raffles are in full swing and the drawing will be on May 24th.

We are winding down our programs for the 2015/16 school year:

• Our Kids Win: Pathways to Success Program has been wonderful thanks to the Key West Police Department, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Border Patrol and the Office of the State Attorney. We were able to provide mentors to 28 students this year! So far, we have a 60% success rate and we are hoping to increase that by the end of the school year.
• Our reading literacy program, M.O.R.E., ended this month with certificates awarded to both mentees and mentors for all their hard work throughout the year. Carrie Helliesen had a huge impact on our reluctant readers at both Poinciana Elementary School and Key West High School. So far she has an 80% success rate with her one on one reading mentoring initiative. Thank you Keys Open Doors Foundation for funding this program!
• The Farm to School Program celebrated Earth Day from Key Largo to Key West thanks to our Director Vicki Boguszewski. Special Earth Day events included Kim Gabel from the Monroe County Extension Service spending time with students. So much has been learned about where our food comes from and how important it is to eat healthy in order to stay healthy and help sustain our world.
• Our Youth Leaders at Key West High School and Marathon Middle/High School provided Peer to Peer Drug/Alcohol Prevention messages using drunk/drugged goggles and pledge cards from SADD this month.
• The Monroe County Youth Advisory Council finalized their plans for May. There will be  a Teen Town Hall and  a presentation to the Marathon City Council.
• Finally this month we had three of our Youth Leaders receive Conch Pride Awards at Key West High School! Congratulations to you all!